Personal Injury Law

Sustainability and Consumer Confidence in Food Safety

By Kenneth Odza

For food sellers interested in promoting a 'sustainable' brand and inspiring food safety confidence in their consumers, meet Food Alliance. Food Alliance 'is a nonprofit organization that certifies farms, ranches and food handlers for sustainable agricultural and facility management practices.' It bills itself as 'the most comprehensive certification program for sustainably produced food in North America.'

I've recently joined the Food Alliance Board of Directors (in fact, I'm headed to Portland today for a board meeting). My hope is to assist Food Alliance in becoming more widely accepted and mainstream. Credible third-party certification, such as Food Alliance provides, offers a transparent pathway to sustainability of our food supply and consumer confidence in food safety.

Food Alliance takes a holistic approach that is broader and more dynamic than organic certification, which does nothing to address food contamination from pathogens such as Salmonella, E. coli, and Listeria (in fact, many experts believe that organically grown food may be more likely to be contaminated by these pathogens). By way of example, Food Alliance certification standards, among other things, address 'soil and water quality,' 'ensure the health and humane treatment of animals,' 'conserve energy and water,' and 'ensure quality control and food handling safety.'

For more on why a holistic, independent third-party certification correlates with food safety (and accompanying consumer confidence), I'd suggest reading this op-ed piece co-authored by Food Alliance Executive Director Scott Exo, which was written earlier this year in the wake of the PCA peanut recall.

Full post as published by Food Liability Law Blog on June 24, 2009 (boomark / email).